03 — Editorial product · Subscription — 2025
Vaults of Valour
The British military archive, told by curators and veterans.
Core purpose
To give the British military museum network a watchable, premium home online — and to channel revenue back into the institutions whose collections make it possible.
01 — The problem
The UK has one of the richest military museum networks in the world, but visiting in person is the only way to access most of it. The archives needed a quiet, premium home online — one that respected the material.
02 — The approach
An editorial design language: serif display type, warm museum tones, an interactive map of 69 UK museums, and short or long-form filmed tours led by the people who know the objects best. Half of every subscription returns to the museums.
03 — The outcome
A reference-grade platform that makes the British military archive watchable from anywhere, and funds the institutions it draws from.
Core features
What it actually does.
F.01
Interactive UK map
69 museums plotted across the UK with branch filters (Navy, Marines, Army, RAF) and one-click jump to any vault.
F.02
Vaults — short & long form
Curator-led tours filmed inside collections, edited for both 4-minute and 40-minute viewing.
F.03
Subscription with give-back
Half of every subscription routes back to the featured museum, making membership feel like patronage.
F.04
Editorial typography
A serif-forward identity that reads more like a journal than a streaming service.
How it was built
Under the bonnet.
- Stack
- React + Tailwind, a custom map component, video-first content tiles.
- Brand
- Warm cream and military gold palette, large display serif paired with a quiet humanist sans.
- Content model
- Vaults indexed by museum, branch and length so visitors can browse by interest or by appetite.
- Commerce
- Subscription primitives wired so revenue split is transparent on the platform itself.
“The British military archive, told by curators and veterans.”
Visit the live site ↗Next plate — 04